Note pads in which the individual sheets of the pad have printed material impressed on each sheet are commonly manufactured by inserting the heavy paper board backing between groups of the printed sheets as they emerge from the printing press. As the printed sheets emerge from the press, they fall onto a stack individually sheet-by-sheet. In manufacturing note pads, it has been the practice to count the desired number of sheets per pad as the sheets emerge from the press, and then insert a board into the stack following the correct number of sheets. When the stack of sheets is removed from the press, the stack is divided at predetermined intervals by the backing boards. Each backing board is then cemented at one edge to the overlying groups of sheets to form each pad.